Automatic pocket cigarette case



Sept. 22, 1931. R BERGER 1,824,461

2 AUTOMATIC POCKET CIGARETTE CASE Filed April 11. 1950 zsw i 5 1? Q Q? INVENTOR,

' ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 22,1931

UNITED STATES ROBERT BERGER, OF PATEBSON, NEW JERSEY AUTOMATIC POCKET CIGARETTE CASE Application filed April 11,

This invention relates to cases for cigarettes and similar elongated articles and it consists in certain improvements in the case set forth in my Letters Patent No. 1,746,023 having for their objects to provide for greater capac ty of the device, facilitate the assembly of its parts, and generally increase its efiiclency and improve its construction.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a plan of the case, open Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are sections on llnes 2 2, 33, 4.4 and 55, respectively, Fig. 2 belng a section of one section of the case and Fig. 3 a section of both when closed; and

Figs. 6, 7and 8 are perspective views of certain parts.

e case comprises two rectangular containers or sections 1 and 2 which, in the present example, are counterparts of each other, they being hinged together at 3 and each being a shallow box open at the top slde thereof on the side which, when the case 1s closed, faces the other section. Either may be taken as the body of the case and the other as the cover. The contained mechanism of either is mainly the same as that of the other.

Lining two adjoining sides of the section 1 is a tubular housing 5 and lining a third side (at right angles to the hinge) is a tubular housing 6. To the fourth side at 7 is riveted a plate spring 8 whose free end is rebent at 9 and arched. (The plate-spring of one section may carry the latch 10 to engage a keeper 11 on the other to hold the case closed, 12

being a knob for pressing in the spring to release the latch.) At the free end of the spring the fourth side has the ejecting opening 13 closable by the gate 14 the stem of whose knob 15 projects through slots in in said side and the rebend 9 and has a head 14a bearing against the inner face of the latter. Part 9 thus frictionally resists movement of the gate in either direction. On housing 6' is secured a deflector blade 16 which, when the cigarettes are shifted toward the housing, guides the outer end of the leading one into registry with opening 1-3.

In housing 6 slides the ejector 17 normally repressed by a spring 18 in the housing and having an external knob 17a for sliding it 1930. Serial No. 443,348.

gether as one and an angular section 19 of the -top wall thereof forms a removable cover; it

is normally held in place in the angle of the section and between the abutments formed at 20, engaging under a lip 20a of one of them (Fig. 3), by the overhanging stud 21 but may be removed by lifting one end to clear one abutment andthen sliding it out of place.

To hold the cigarettes in a flat row against the bottom of each section of the case a bent p1ate-spring-22 is pivoted to one side of the section and may engage under a keeper 23 at the other side on swinging it on its pivot, its convex side being downward.

The follower for urging he row of ci arettes toward housing 6 is constructed as f ollows: It is a blade 24 formed with an elongated head 25 extending perpendicularly to the plane of the blade and joined thereto by neck 26, said head being forked. 'The head 1s received in that part of housing 5' which is perpendicular to housing 6 and the neck occupies a longitudinal slot 27 in said housing part, said head and hence the follower as a whole being urged toward housin 6 by a spring 28 contained in housing 5. when fully retracted is alined with the mentloned part of housing 5, and the head 25 of the follower (which, of course, holds the follower perpendicular to said part in any of its possible positions) is forked to accommodate said ejector at this time (Fig. 1). Thus while the ejector is normally fully retracted so that the end of the nearest cigarette may oppose it the follower can assume a position where the last cigarette is held against housing 6, or' fully opposite opening 13. On removal of the cover 19 the follower may if needed be removed.

'For holding the follower back when filling a section of the case there is a latch 29. This latch has a hooked end 29a engaged under a plate 30 secured on housing 5 so as to tilt or pivot on the plate (appearing in section in Fig. 3). The latch is pressed from the horimay merge tojector 17 zontal wall of the section by a spring 31 so that when the follower is repressed it may be caught and held by the latch. The two latches are opposite each other. Therefore, when thecase is closed, if the latches have been made to lock back the followers they will by contact with each other be moved to release the followers, so that the latter press the cigarettes, now held clamped by plate-spring 22, toward wall 6, so that as the cigarettes are one by one ejected from opening 13 they are moved toward said well.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In combination, a container to hold a row of elongated articles having a bottom and upstanding, marginal walls, means to urge the articles toward one wall transverse- Iv of them, one wall adjoining the first-named wall having near the latter an ejection opening, means to hold the articles against the bottom, a sliding gate for said opening slidable on the secondwall into and out of closing relation to the opening and having a knob device. and a plate-spring attached to the inside of the second wall and having an arched portion, said second wall having a slot extending lengthwise of the movement of the gate and said knob-device penetrating said slot and having wiping contact with said arched portion.

2. In combination, a container to hold a row of elongated articles having a bottom and upstanding marginal walls and two tubular housings extending lengthwise of and arranged respectively inward of two of the walls which adjoin each other, one such housing being longitudinally slotted at the inside thereof and to its end which adjoins the other housing, an ejector movable lengthwise of and in the first housing and protruding inwardly through its slot and normally springheld in alinement with the other housing, said other housing being also longitudinally slotted, and a follower for the articles springheld toward the first housing and protruding through the slot of the second housing and having a head within the latter, said head being forked and adapted to receive in its fork the protruding portion of the follower when the ejector is alined with the second housing and the follower adjoins the first housing.

3. In combination, a container to hold a row of elongated articles having a bottom and upstanding marginal walls and two tubular housings extending lengthwise of and arranged respectively inward of two of the walls which adjoin each other, one such housing being longitudinally slotted at the inside thereof and to its end which adjoins the other housing. an ejector movable lengthwise of and in the first housing and protruding inwardly through its slot and normally springheld in alinement with the other housing,

said other housing being also longitudinally slotted, a follower for the articles spring-held toward the first housing and protrudin through the slot of the second housingan having a head within the later, said head 70 housing, and said housing having adjoining 7 portions of their top walls removed an thereby forming an opening through which the follower may be removed, and a removable cover for said opening.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature. 8

ROBERT BERGER. 

